


now we are three

by cirrus (themorninglark)



Series: rareprompts [13]
Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Third Year, multiple POVs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-11 23:54:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4457333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a countdown, the third year of high school, and they know it. They are racing against time.</p><p>It all starts somewhere, starts small.</p>
            </blockquote>





	now we are three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [proshy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/proshy/gifts).



> For Poka, who asked for NagiReiGou adventures in third year land. There aren't exactly... adventures... in this, but they are in third year land! ^^;; I wanted to explore, a little, how their personalities would intersect, and how they would take the club forward. Hope you like it!

Gou's strawberry-flavoured protein powder doesn't actually taste anything like strawberries. What it tastes like is _fake_ strawberries, the saccharine sweet of a Pocky stick or Hi-Chew candy, and that's why Nagisa loves it. He takes a bite of the home-made onigiri with relish. The sour plum makes his tongue tingle.

It's not the same now, lunches on the roof, but there is shelter there beneath the awning, and there are old habits, and so it is to the roof, still, that their feet find their way when the bell rings.

These are the things that they shared, and Nagisa has a long, vivid memory. He throws himself into the present with all his heart, because if he let himself fall into the past, he'd be wandering there _forever_.

Their absences sit louder than Makoto and Haruka ever did, but Nagisa doesn't look back. Not this time. He can see the sky, this time - no longer trapped beneath a concrete roof, he can see the sun, and the stars, and his _friends_ -

With each bite of his onigiri, he cherishes their _now_. Hand in hand, they'll chase the future, together.

 

/

 

When she makes the next day's bento at night, she thinks about many things.

She thinks about her brother, who showed her how when she was little. They had learned, together, to prepare their own lunch when their mother was out at work. They had learned to take care of themselves.

She thinks about Sousuke, who took a bite of her first ever attempt at cooking when she was eight and he was nine. He'd swallowed it gamely, patted her on the shoulder and told her, _ganbatte. Easy on the mirin_.

She doesn't think about cooking, now. Her hands have chopped the vegetables and rolled the rice so many times over the years, it's ingrained in the muscle memory of her fingers. She knows exactly what her swimmers need, and what they like. She has her supplements lined up neatly in a row on the kitchen counter.

_Ganbatte._

She has worked hard.

She'll keep working hard, because it doesn't stop here. She is a member of the team. They're counting on her.

She blows a strand of stray hair out of her eyes, wraps the last piece of seaweed round an onigiri meant for her fussy captain, and clasps the lid on her box, firmly. Tomorrow is another day.

 

/

 

It's Rei who first gives voice to the thought.

"We made it. We really made it," he murmurs, in a voice tinged with wonder and not a little disbelief, and Nagisa and Gou look up. At Rei. At the clouds in the misty grey sky; at the drizzle that's coming down, lightly, in the pool in front of them.

Gou unzips her bag and puts her papers back inside. Their training times for today are written down with a neat hand, no longer just four rows in the table, four names to keep track of. Her stopwatch is clicking overtime now, her folder growing thicker. Some days, they stay back for hours to study the data; some evenings, they wind up back at Rei's, planning schedules over barley tea and melon bread.

"We're a real club now," says Rei.

"It's because you've worked so hard, Rei-chan!" says Nagisa. "Gou-chan, too."

Gou tightens her ponytail, and jabs a finger into Nagisa's shoulder.

"First of all, Nagisa-kun, _you've_ worked hard too - "

" _Ow,_ Gou-chan, don't do that!"

"- and second of all, Rei-kun…"

She whips around. Rei flinches, instinctively, under his manager's fierce glare; but her hand drops to her side, fingers curling round the edge of the bench. Her voice softens.

"We were _always_ a real club."

Rei smiles. "Of course. You're right, Gou-san."

And she is.

Rei places his trust in the evidence of his eyes, his senses. He doesn't play the game of blind faith. But sometimes, the evidence tells him, loud and clear, _believe_.

 

* * *

 

It's a countdown, the third year of high school, and they know it. They are racing against time.

It's easy to think you've got forever, in your first year. And perhaps, it's still true - after all, the club will outlive them; it will grow stronger, go further, and one day - maybe not this year, or next, but - one day, it will bring home medals from Nationals, and the name of _Iwatobi High School_ will be known -

It all starts somewhere, starts small. 

They are small. They are only three, beneath a rough shelter, waiting for the sun to come out. The dreamer, the doer, and the realist.

And maybe, three's more than enough, for now.

 


End file.
